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Seized rear caliper?

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Dream On

15+ Year Contributor
2,242
23
Sep 6, 2003
Athens/Oxford, Ohio
Hey guys, I'm having another problem with the car right now... It first started making a noise from the driver's side rear wheel when I left the ebrake on and backed out of a parking spot, then moved forward about 15 feet. Once I realized it was on, I put the brake down and kept driving. It was making a squealing sound from the back, but I had to keep driving since I was 200 miles from home. Eventually it started to just sound like I needed new rear brake pads, squealing more when I applied the brake...fast forward to a few days later when I pull up to a stop sign, and then my car won't move forward at all. That same rear wheel now feels like I have the parking brake on when it is all the way down. So I just backed the car up into a parking spot and its been sitting since. I plan to pull it off and try and check the the ebrake line as well as try and rotate the piston back in and see if that works. Am I just wasting my time though? Will I definately need a new caliper? I just took the calipers off this summer and both pistons twisted back in fine, but I didn't replace the pads, just took the calipers off and painted them. Thanks in advance.
 
Seized rear calipers are a common problem on the 1G's. I would take it apart and see if you can turn the piston in and see if the sliders still move. If it cant do both of those things then I would just look for a new caliper. New ones can be pretty pricey $100+, so you might want to see if you can find a good used one either at a junyard or in the classifieds.
 
I've never taken a caliper apart, but i've taken them off completely. Is it hard to remove the piston and mess with all of that? So if it goes back in and turns, should it be ok?
 
I've rebuilt them and trust me, if it's not something simple like a rusted pad or frozen pin just replace the whole thing.

The parking brake actuator can leak and rust the whole thing solid.

I've posted pictures before of the caliper disassembled. A quick search should find them.

Steve
 
Have all of them rebuilt, I had each one at different times fail on me now there nice and new.
 
steve said:
I've rebuilt them and trust me, if it's not something simple like a rusted pad or frozen pin just replace the whole thing.

The parking brake actuator can leak and rust the whole thing solid.

I've posted pictures before of the caliper disassembled. A quick search should find them.

Steve
Well it's weird. I just had the rears removed this summer and everything was fine. So I can't imagine that it's rusted or anything all the sudden. I mean it had to have been from where I left the E-brake on, I just hope it didn't mess up the caliper completely. I'll try and take it off tomorrow or this weekend and see what I find and let you guys know.
 
Alright I've had a chance to look at my car and here's what I've found...Upon taking off the rear caliper, the inside pad fell out, in three pieces. There was no friction material left, and it had almost eaten through the metal part. The inside of the rotor was eaten up as you would imagine, but the outer was fine. The piston turned back into the caliper just fine though. Should I just replace the rear pads and rotors and reuse the caliper?
 
did the caliper scorth the rotor any? Sounds like the slides aren't lubed to me.
 
steve said:
You need to check that the caliper actually still floats on the pins. Usually when only one pad wears out the caliper is frozen and not moving like it should.

Steve

How exactly do I do this Steve? I don't know much about the braking system or how to check what you are saying. I have a Hanes manual though, so I'll have to check it out.
 
Alright. It did swing up, that's how I got the brake pads out. I'll have to check it to see how much it slides. I lubed the bottom bolt when I removed it the first time, but it didn't seem like there was a bolt to remove from the top of the caliper.
 
Dream On said:
I lubed the bottom bolt when I removed it the first time, but it didn't seem like there was a bolt to remove from the top of the caliper.

You can see the two pins in this picture om the far right.

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The one you cracked loose to swing the caliper up should have been the bottom one.

Steve
 
It doesn't seem like there is an actual bolt on the top one though. It seems to be just rounded at the top where the hex would be. How do I go about getting this out? My manual seems to only cover the front brakes...it doesn't have much for the rears except how to remove them.
 
The top one is not suppose to come out. its just suppose to slide. Their are 2 other bolts that hold the calpiler(well the bracket that hold the caliper i should say) on that you need to take off if you want to remove the whole caliper(and to get the rotor off).
 
It stays attached to the bracket until you slide the caliper off. So first you remove the lock pin, rotate the caliper up off the pads and then pull it off the remaining guide pin. Once the caliper is off the pins you see that the guide pin has a hex on the end of it so that you can unbolt it from the bracket.

However, it you can rotate the caliper up and slide it off the guide pin it's unlikely it's a problem unless it looks rusted. You should beable to grease both pins with brake grease and put new pads on if you can slide the caliper back and forth on the pins.

If they were frozen you can't usually move the caliper at all. and would have to use the two bolts on the bracket to the spindle/trailing arm to remove the whole assembly.


Steve
 
Upon removing it and inspecting it again, I see what the problem was. On the driver's side, the top slider has a torn boot and therefor rusted internals. I cleaned it up the best I could b/c I had to move my car (more details later...) and put it back together. On the other side, the bottom slider was rusted and it would not move at all. I suppose I need a caliper rebuild kit where I could just fix the top of one and the bottom of the other? Thanks.
 
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